Comics Cafe: The Genesis

It took seventeen plastic chairs, three round tables, few comic books and a CD of Latino music to convert a drab basement into Comics Cafe. The first meeting of the cafe was held on Saturday, 22 April. Attended by eight people - a fundraiser, a student, two cinematographers, a writer, a comics artist, a development journalist and a writer - the first meeting was marked by the screening of a film on girl child rights campaign in Rajasthan.

Over coffee and biscuits, a number of plans for the upcoming weeks were discussed. Once that was over, we broke into a discussion on the problem of girl child foeticide and infanticide in many states of India. We also discussed why many students of elite institutes like JNU were being drawn towards the BPO sector.

We pasted posters of various campaigns on the walls, with the help of a Chinese-made stick on. Some of us had got few books from personal collections for display in the cafe. A number of comics books, posters and graphic novels have also been made available. Gradually, the stock will grow. So will, the number of people and coffee cups.

We are meeting again, Saturday, 29 April at 5 pm. You can seek more details, by putting up your comments for this post.